Opioid Crisis Response Legislation Receives Widespread Support at Capitol

HARTFORD – The legislature’s Public Safety Committee held a public hearing on Thursday, March 5, to allow testimony to be made on H.B. 5318: An Act Requiring A Study of Technology That Police Officers, Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services Personnel May Use When Responding to Opioid Overdoses and H.B. 5317: An Act Concerning Purchases of Opioid Antagonist and Cartridge Injector Products for Law Enforcement Use. Rep. Bill Buckbee (R-New Milford) spoke in support of the bills because of their potential to help law enforcement, EMS and firefighters respond with greater accuracy to certain emergency situations. As currently proposed, one of the bill’s will study aspects of how GPS technology can be deployed and utilized to its fullest extent in the event of an opioid overdose, and the other will make overdose reversal medication more readily available.

Tony and Tracey Morrissey teamed up with Rep. Buckbee to speak in support of the proposals. They were joined by several advocates of Brian Cody’s Law, with the group submitting hundreds of pieces of testimony in support of these life-saving legislative initiatives. To review the testimony, you can click here.

“We have so many well-trained individuals who wake up every single day and want to help others. Our first responders are committed to fighting the opioid epidemic and using GPS, paired with specific data sets, could end up saving more lives,” said Rep. Buckbee. “This study seeks to cut down on the response time it takes for emergency personnel to get to an overdose scene. Time is a major factor in treating opioid disorder because there is a small window when reversal medication can be effectively administered.”

H.B. 5318 will require a study to be conducted by the state’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the Department of Public Health. These agencies will collaborate their findings about GPS integration to emergency response and recommendations to remove any legislative barrier to implement new response protocol and resources.

H.B. 5317 is focused on ensuring communities have the ability to procure overdose reversal medication. The price point of overdose antagonists can make accessing it hard. When an individual is in crisis, there should not be a financial barrier preventing that individual from getting the help they need. As a result, this bill proposal would make it easier for all municipalities to purchase opioid antagonists and cartridge injector products.

“We are in the shorter version of legislative session, which means we will be wrapping up our business for the year in a couple of months. Regardless of our time constraints, I also stressed to my legislative colleagues today that we must take action on this subject matter before we gavel out for the year,” explained Rep. Buckbee. “Lives are literally hanging in the balance and the longer it takes the General Assembly to make headway on this bill proposals, and several others that are related, the greater the risk our communities face.”

The Public Safety Committee membership has expressed interest in moving both concepts along in their discussion with Rep. Buckbee and the Morrissey’s. It should also be noted that both pieces of legislation have bipartisan support.

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